Peter Nelson '79, above, and Matthew Thompson '91 were named to The Hollywood Reporter's Power Lawyer List for 2014.

Rory Little, George Bisharat

UC Hastings professors dominated public radio programs this week.

Professor Rory Little (@RoryLittle) spoke with host Michael Krasny on KQED’s Forum about the case before the US Supreme Court that could allow warrantless searches of cell phones. Listen to the program here.

In the second half hour, Professor George Bisharat spoke with Krasny about the Middle East, and specifically U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent closed-door comments that Israel risks becoming an apartheid state if efforts fail to reach a peace settlement. Listen to the program here.

Dorit Reiss

Professor Dorit Reiss (@doritmi) spoke with Airtalk’s Larry Mantle on KPCC Southern California Public Radio about whether food workers should get mandatory vaccines. Recent scares about the spread of hepatitis A have resulted in thousands of preventative shots and a debate about how to prevent the spread of disease in food service.

Up to 17,000 people are sickened with hepatitis A every year, according to the CDC. The virus is spread when someone ingests fecal material from someone with the infection -- it’s highly contagious, and although it usually results in a few weeks of illness, it can be fatal. Listen to the program here.

Brian Pascal

Research Fellow Brian Pascal (@bhpascal), with the Privacy and Technology Project, authored the cover story “How Technology Broke Privacy,” in the Spring 2014 issue of Litigation, published by the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association.

“Privacy may go down in history as one of the great casualties of our unceasing march into the future,” Pascal writes. Read more here.

Cynthia Bashant

San Diego County Superior Court Judge Cynthia Bashant ’86 was confirmed by 94-0 vote by the Senate to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, in San Diego.

“She is a seasoned trial judge, former federal prosecutor and a real leader in the San Diego legal community. She is a perfect fit for this position, and I think she will be superb,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) after the April 30 Senate confirmation vote. Read more here.

Tiela Chalmers

Tiela Chalmers ’86 has been named the new CEO of the Alameda County Bar Association. Prior to joining in the bar, she coordinated the Shriver Housing Project in Los Angeles, the largest of the “Civil Gideon” pilot projects in California. Previously the Executive Director of Volunteer Legal Services Program (VLSP) in San Francisco, Tiela worked at VLSP for many years with Tanya Neiman until her death. Prior to VLSP, Tiela was an attorney at Farella, Braun + Martel in San Francisco.

Katherine Zalewski

Katherine Zalewski ’86, of Richmond, has been appointed to the California Workers' Compensation Appeals Board. Zalewski has served as chief counsel at the California Department of Industrial Relations since 2012, where she was a workers compensation administrative law judge and advisor to the Division of Workers' Compensation from 2009 to 2011.

Matthew Thompson, Peter Nelson

Matthew Thompson ’91 and Peter Nelson ’79 have once again been named to The Hollywood Reporter’s Power Lawyer List for 2014. Nelson said his “best career moment” was “being thanked by Peter Jackson from the stage of the Oscars.” Thompson said the “biggest Hollywood tantrum" he’s witnessed” was a meeting “that got so heated, one of the attendees took off a shoe and threw it at a lawyer. Luckily, he missed.”

Bryan Vereschagin

Bryan Vereschagin ’96 was certified as a lifetime member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and Multi-Million Advocates Forum. He has his own firm in San Francisco where he represents individuals in unlawful discrimination, harassment and retaliation cases. He also handles person injury and fraud cases.

Vien Truong

Vien Truong ’06, environmental equity director at the Greenlining Institute, served as evening emcee for the organization’s Economic Summit April 4, in Oakland.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan welcomed Greenlining to Oakland, where Greenlining will have its future headquarters.

The evening reception focused on youth, and included moving spoken word performances by Youth Speaks. Greenlining honored two Oakland-based groups with its Our Next Generation Award; Youth Uprising, which provides comprehensive health, wellness, education, career, arts and cultural programming to Alameda County youth and young adults, and Youth Radio, which provides media skills training.

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The European drafting process remains far from complete, and actual adoption of the resulting proposals will surely be a gradual thing. Throughout, however, these developments will have a significant UC Hastings component, and UC Hastings students will have the benefit of information about these significant international trends.

University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco is redefining legal education through our experiential, interdisciplinary, and international approach to the law. We integrate rigorous academics with hands-on practice, preparing our graduates to tackle the legal challenges—and leverage the opportunities—of the 21st century.